Out of This World

After World War I three countries remained closed to the Western World and to Lowell Thomas. By 1949, his son explains in the Brattle's new travelogue, "Dad had succeeded in penetrating two of them." Out of this World describes Thomas' assault on the last survivor.

The movie which documents this invasion treads a fine path between two extremes: Lowell Thomas and Tibet. Except for repeated shots of Mr. Thomas Sr. bathing (rear view) and growing a beard (front view), the Thomas' have kept pretty well out of camera range. However, the narration by Lowell Thomas Jr. which accompanies the monks and mountains that flash across the screen manages to keep Tibet pretty well out of range. Sample line: "This mule is driven by a chap named Lulu and what a lulu he is."

Tibet, according to the script, is a land of few but salient features: yaks, prayer flags, monks, and declining population. Yaks especially. Tibetans plow their fields with yaks, eat yak meat and cheese, light their lamps with yak butter, and drink fifty cups of yak butter tea a day. Yak is also the country's chief export--its fur makes Santa Clause beards. Lowell Thomas Jr. adds significantly now and then, "Yes, it's those old yaks again."

The photography, though, is remarkably good. The rough terrain over which the Thomas' lugged their equipment is attractive, even for a travelogue. The Thomas' also have assiduously gone around to all the local religious festivals. The result is excerpts from religious dances that run ten hours a day for two weeks, as well as shots of Buddhist pilgrims who spend up to thirty days continually prostrating themselves before Lhasa's temples. Many of their subjects, like the Dalai Lama, had never been photographed before, and may never never again, as the Communists have just topped off their invasion with a Peking-to-Lhasa express highway. Probably the most exciting scenes are those in the country's great plains which, at an average height of 15,000 feet above sea level, are surrounded by mountains 10,000 feet higher.

There are also two funny cartoons and a latter-day Brigadoon by Orson Welles which is called Return to Glennescatd.